Faucet Washers

The slop sink in the rental house developed a drip and, unlike our kitchen faucet, required only a new washer. Of course, choosing the right size from that assortment posed a bit of a problem:

Slop sink valve with washers

The old washer is in the upper right; you can see the indentation from the valve seat.

There’s a variety of sizes & shapes; these represent just the closest matches. I have no idea what 3/8, 3/8R, and 3/8L might signify, but they’re all slightly different, some with conical cross-sections that may also be slightly different. Worst case, of course, you can sand down the rim of a too-large washer to make the diameter come out right.

Information is hard to come by and contradictory. There are several washer sizing systems out there. For small washers, they have sizes like 0, 00, and 000, which are 17/32, 16/32, and 15/32″ OD. A 00 is the same as a 1/4S (S for “small”). Yes, a “1/4S” washer is 16/32 or 1/2″ OD. It gets worse. A size 0 matches a 1/4M (M for “medium”). At that point, the number sizes run out, and the series continues with the fractional sizes. A 1/4, which is the same as a 1/4R (R for “regular”, I’m guessing) is 18/32″ OD. And a 1/4L (L for “large”) is 19/32. However, a different vendor’s 1/4M is 37/64 OD! This continues through 1/2, 3/8, and 5/8 (a 5/8L can be 29/32 or 30/32, depending on vendor), and then a new number size, 1, which is an inch across. To complicate things further, these are available in flat or beveled, and I saw one vendor offering a “3/4 bevel”. Further, vendors are now assigning color codes to sizes. These, of course, are not standardized. A size 1/2 (which is also a 1/2R), is 3/4″ OD, or 24/32, is “yellow” from Brasscraft and “hot pink” from Korky.

A particular problem is that French gauge numbers get smaller for thinner wires, while the U.S./British gauge numbers get larger for thinner wires. The crossover point is right in the popular range of sizes used for bicycle spokes:

Hmm, sounds like a table of the dimensions for washers would be Really Useful if some poor devil did one. OTOH, I just got rid of the last* faucet that needs washers. For some reason, cartridges last enough longer that it doesn’t hurt to replace them. Of course, with Home Desperate an 80 mile round trip, minimizing the trips into town is a Good Thing.

* except for the random kitchen faucets at church and the parsonage, though the bathrooms have Delta bits and I have spares already.

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